


Fantastic Four Plus One

by Naomida



Category: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Power Swap, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Secret Identity, Spidey!Johnny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:39:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8598313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naomida/pseuds/Naomida
Summary: Who would have thought that the biggest hardship of being a superhero would be to have to hang out with his arch-nemesis because Johnny was a slut for free hotdogs? AKA, the story where Johnny is the one getting bitten by a radioactive spider, and hiding your secret identity to the super-powered people you live with is super hard, especially when Peter Parker is dead-set on becoming your best friend.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've always heard that if you can't find the story that you want to read, then you should probably write it yourself -- which made me drop my original story for this Big Bang TEN DAYS before the first draft was due and write this Power Switch AU instead. It was a wild ride, but I'm so happy with the result and sooooo happy that SpideyTorch fanfics are raining down on us!
> 
> The art is by [Captainsharkspeare](http://captainsharkspeare.tumblr.com/), it is[here](http://intern-gershwin-palmer.tumblr.com/post/153639654514/if-i-had-known-that-being-a-complete-asshole-was) and it is _amazing_! I'm still so happy such a talented artist chose my fanfics! 
> 
> Enjoy!

Here was what happened: Johnny was sixteen and had been living with Sue, her stupid boyfriend and his one friend and one intern for about nine months when Reed's space program got approved and their two year preparation time started and, of course, the first thing Sue did was push him to the side, declaring that he couldn't come with them, even though he had helped with the stupid spaceship design, that he was too young, even thought Reed's stupid intern was the exact same age as him, that it was too dangerous, too this, too that.

Johnny fought tooth and nails, but in the end he lost, and Sue called Aunt Marygay to come stay with him and babysit him, like he was a child.

Johnny had been so angry, so beside himself, so _furious_ by the injustice of being left behind, that he didn't really think one night, four months after everyone had left for who-knew-where to train for going to space, when he had decided to break into Reed's precious lab and mess a little with his experimental alcoholic drinks and his attempt at a robot pet parrot.

Letting one of the experimental and highly radioactive spider out of its cage had really not been in the program, and getting bitten by it even less, but once it was done and Johnny's head started spinning there was nothing he could do except sit down on the floor and try not to pass out or throw up.

Two days later he was stealing some experimental spandex from the lab, sewing himself some sort or red and blue ugly costume and getting out into New York to save the city from a bad Godzilla knock-off trying to kill people.

And so Spiderman was born.

 

 

***

 

 

Living with Aunt Marygay wasn't that bad and she didn't get on Johnny's case when he got bad grades as much as Sue used to. Also, she didn't care that he very obviously snuck out of the house almost every night – although Johnny was pretty sure she thought he was partying or taking part in some sort of illegal street racing, not fighting crime as a themed superhero.

All in all, living for two years with her was good. Sue hadn't called at all, probably because she wasn't allowed to, and Johnny didn't get bitten or eaten or anything by any more experimental animals Reed had been working on, so all was good.

The day the spaceship was launched, Johnny and Aunt Marygay sat on the couch to watch it live on TV, and the bitter taste in Johnny's mouth was still as strong as the day Sue had told him he wasn't coming.

Once it was certain that the spaceship wasn't going to crash back down on Earth and everyone would survive, he kissed his aunt on the temple and left the house as Spiderman, needing to punch some bad guys in the teeth to calm his nerves.

 

 

***

 

 

The call, like every bad news ever, came in the dead of the night.

Fortunately, it was one of the rare nights Johnny had stayed in, trying to get more than three hours of sleep because he had a test on the next day, so when Aunt Marygay threw his bedroom door open and furiously started shaking him, her hysteric voice calling his name, he was there to immediately jump to his feet and grab his aunt by the shoulders, trying to look into her teary eyes.

“What is it?!” he asked, pulse racing, terrified of what could have his aunt in such a state of panic.

“It's Sue!” she cried out, voice shaking as much as her hands when she reached up and grabbed his forearms in a grip so tight, it hurt. “There was a problem… They're all back on Earth but...” She choked on a sob and, heart plummeting down to the bottom of his stomach and throat constricting, Johnny hugged her close and as tight as he dared, feeling his eyes starting to prickle with burning tears.

 

 

***

 

 

The army and scientists studying Sue and the three others didn't let Johnny and Aunt Marygay see them.

In fact, Johnny was pretty sure that if it wasn't for the four of them sneaking out and saving a bunch of people with their face uncovered for the whole world to see, he wouldn't have known about their powers.

As it was, he was _livid_ that these four dumbasses would let him worry to death about their well-being while they were getting matching superheroes costumes and choosing superhero names like The Human Torch (very original, asshole) or Mister Fantastic (at least Reed was true to himself).

It still took one more month before the four of them were showing up at the house, smiling warmly to the swarm of paparazzi and adoring fans waiting outside.

Sue's first words to him were “Johnny! I've missed you _so_ much!” as she threw herself into his arms and squeezed tight.

Johnny squeezed back, because as much as he was still mad at her, she was still his sister, and he _had_ missed her too. _Hell_ , he had even missed her stupid boyfriend, Ben, and that asshole Peter.

“Took you long enough to come back,” he mumbled against his sister's shoulder.

“I'm sorry,” she murmured.

Johnny had a feeling that things were going to become complicated.

 

 

***

 

 

He thought long and hard about telling Sue about his powers and the fact that he was now a respected superhero, but decided to keep it to himself after the first time super villains attacked the _Fantastic Four_ at the house.

They were all eating lunch in the kitchen when the wall right next to front-door exploded and smoke started to get in, and Sue's first reaction was to jump to her feet and put an invisible bubble up around her, Johnny and Aunt Marygay – he knew because he tried running in the direction of the explosion and collided hard against the invisible wall.

“Johnny, Marygay, you need to get out of here,” said Reed, sending them a quick glance to make sure they were okay before he was disappearing from the kitchen.

Ben followed him closely and Sue pushed Johnny in the direction of one of the kitchen's window before he could protest.

“Take the car and make sure nothing happens to her,” Sue told him as their Aunt went first out the window.

Johnny nodded, because there really wasn't anything to say, and he had to make sure his aunt was okay, no matter what, but the fact that Peter was still standing in the kitchen and he could feel his gaze on his back was enervating so he brushed past his sister without a word and followed his aunt out.

Once in the safety of the car and driving away, Johnny chanced a look at his aunt who was silently staring at him from the passenger seat.

Her lips were pursed and her eyebrows slightly frowned, but she didn't look like she was going to speak up first, so Johnny took the plunge.

“What?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine,” she replied, tone flat, “but you're not.”

Clenching his teeth, Johnny turned back to the road in front of him and pretended to be concentrating on driving even though the road was totally empty and going straight ahead without any curve.

“Why are you saying that?”

“I know you. You hate being cast out like that. And you felt like you could do something. I saw how you tried to run straight to danger.”

Quickly glancing back at her, Johnny discovered that she wasn't frowning anymore, and even looked a little sympathetic.

“I might not say anything or probe too much, but I see things,” she added after a minute of silence, looking down at her hands folded on her knees.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck raising, Johnny just nodded his understanding, not daring to speak – because what was there to say to that? Yeah Aunt Marygay, you got me there, I'm a superhero too? Even after almost two years, he still couldn't say that aloud yet. It sounded too ridiculous, _especially_ now that the other four were back and superheroes too.

“I won't say anything,” said his Aunt when he made a turn to enter a parking lot and stopped the car on the first space he found.

“Thanks,” he breathed out, feeling a weight he hadn't even realized was on his shoulders being lifted. He turned on his seat to face his aunt and tried for a tiny smile, “I didn't know how to tell you...”

“It's fine. I understand.”

She gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed one of his hand in her smaller one.

 

 

***

 

 

Being a secret superhero while living with outed superheroes was actually easier than Johnny had thought. It probably had to do with the fact that the Four were still trying to control their powers and trying to not break everything (Ben) or set anything or anyone on fire (Peter), but no one was really paying any attention to Johnny.

The fact that they had to move to the Baxter Building because it was the only safe place where villains couldn't attack them at all times and Reed could install a bigger and better lab didn't help though. Spiderman getting too close to the building would draw attention, and if it wasn't for Aunt Marygay helping him getting in and out without anyone noticing, everyone would have known about his secret after only two days in their new home.

As it was, things weren't that bad, although Ben and Peter were really starting to get on his nerves.

“C'mon kiddo, it's funny that you're only just now graduating,” snorted Ben with his weird, newly drawl.

Peter snorted too, and Johnny really wanted to punch him in the teeth with the full force of his super-strength, because _not everyone could be a genius and already in college at sixteen, goddamnit!_

“Shut up!” he settled on saying, crossing his arms and glaring with as much spite as he could at the two of them.

“Awww, I think he's a little touchy,” cooed Peter, smiling brightly.

Johnny grabbed the closest thing to him, the remote, and threw it at his face.

Peter, predictably, dodged and laughed harder as Johnny got up and left the room, fuming.

He _hated_ that asshole.

 

 

***

 

 

The first time the Fantastic Four ran into Spiderman wasn't _as_ catastrophic as Johnny had been expecting – if you forgot about the fact that Spiderman was _totally_ getting his ass kicked by Sandman, out of every ridiculous villain it could have been, and The Human Torch had to save him from falling down to his probable death.

“Hey, I think we haven't met yet!” grinned Peter, holding his forearm with a flamed-out hand, his ridiculous hair looking even more messy than usual because of the wind blowing through it. “I'm the Human Torch, nice meeting you.”

“You're a bad knock-off of the Human Torch you mean?” replied Johnny, hoping that his voice was too muffled by the mask to be recognized.

Peter laughed and gently put him down on some rooftop before he was flaming off and stepping in front of him, a huge smile on the lips – the kind that Johnny had never seen on his face before, and he had known the guy for years even if, granted, he had been either in space or getting ready to go there for more than two.

“You probably don't know that, but you saved someone very dear to my heart a few years ago, and I just wanted to say thanks,” he said, his smile turning just a tad softer as he held his hand out.

Hesitating for about two seconds, Johnny only shook his hand because it seemed like the polite thing to do, and he was intrigued about who that person could be.

Peter's hand was warm even through his glove, and Peter's smile seemed even warmer as he lingered and lightly squeezed Johnny's fingers right before letting go of his hand, but there was still a fight going on not far from here, and Johnny decided to push that to the back of his mind and focus back on Sandman and kicking his ass, because there was no way someone with a name as lame as that would win against Spiderman – and no comment about the name Spiderman, it wasn't like Johnny had chosen it.

“It was nice meeting you!” called Peter when Johnny jumped off the rooftop and started swinging in the direction of the fight, oddly not flying after him.

“Yeah, right,” replied Johnny right before jumping in between Sandman and a poor civilian.

 

 

***

 

 

The science behind what had happened to Johnny was, at best, vague and eluding him, but if he was being honest with himself, the truth was that he had absolutely no idea what had happened so that he now had abilities, and the weirdest one of them, the fact that he had _actual_ web shooting out of his body, was even more mysterious to him.

He had tried googling about it, but spiders repulsed him, and he was apparently the very first person in the world to have been bitten by a radioactive one.

He could have probably asked Reed, but that would have meant telling him about what had happened, and Johnny was pretty sure Reed would be more interested in figuring out the whys and hows for science purpose than trying to help him understand what had happened to him. He was also pretty sure Reed would get mad once he would finally realize that one of his precious spider was dead because of Johnny.

He had no other way than to go down the sneaky route and try to ask Peter or Sue about it without looking too suspicious, which found him leaning against the door of Peter's bedroom, with his arms crossed and his most charming smile on the lips, the one that showed his dimples and usually had people tripping over themselves trying to serve.

“ _Sooo_ , Pete,” he said, making Peter jump and spin around on his desk chair to throw him a deer-caught-in-the-headlights kind of look, “I heard you guys finally ran into Spidey. How was he?”

“Spiderman?” asked Peter, frowning slightly but also starting to blush a little. “Cool. He was cool. Didn't talk much though.”

“Yeah?” said Johnny, smile growing bigger and even more irresistible, “What did you guys talk about?”

“Oh nothing… I just said hi,” replied Peter, ears turning red as he started rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.

Johnny didn't understand why he would get nervous talking about Spiderman, but he also didn't care much therefor he didn't try to guess.

“I see… You know, I've always thought that the guy was weird,” continued Johnny when Peter didn't say more, stepping into the room and walking to the foot of the bed to sit down, making himself at home, “I mean, he's cool and all, but _Spider_ man, really? I mean come _on_ , there are so many cooler names and themes to choose from for a superhero. And all that web, it's just freaky, where the hell could that even _come_ from?”

Peter started frowning and pursed his lips, before he was kicking his chair closer to the bed and putting his elbows on his knees.

“Actually, I think spiders are pretty cool, and Spiderman is actually awesome. As for the web, it could be some sort of external device, like a bracelet or something that release strings of webs upon activation.”

“You don't think it's natural?”

Peter shrugged, looking like he was actually considering the question for a moment.

“I guess it could, if he had spinnerets.”

“But how would that work?”

Peter shrugged again, lost in his thought for an entire minute, before he was snapping back into the present moment and furrowing his brows.

“I don't know, why do you care exactly?”

“I don't,” immediately replied Johnny, on the defensive.

The brunet looked surprised by his tone, but said nothing when Johnny quickly got up, mumbled some half-ass excuse and got out of the bedroom as fast as he could, disappointed that he had gotten absolutely no new information about his anatomy.

 

 

***

 

 

The next time Spiderman ran into the Fantastic Four was less smooth.

First of all, Johnny knew of the villain of the day, some guy named Victor Von Doom who used to go to college with Reed, or something – Johnny swore that from now on he would pay more attention when his sister's boyfriend spoke. Secondly, Johnny was bleeding badly from at least four different places, and it was starting to get hard to stand upright without any form of help. Thirdly, that Victor guy was using _magic_ against them , which was two parts cool, three parts completely crazy and scary,

At least the guy wasn't paying any attention to Johnny anymore now that Reed was standing in front of him and antagonizing him, so he could let himself lean against a car and try to regain his breath, a hand pressed to his side where he was bleeding.

“Hey, are you okay?” asked a soft voice from his left.

Johnny didn't have to look to know that it was Peter, because he'd recognize that annoying and stupid voice everywhere, even now that Peter had finally hit puberty and gotten a deeper tone.

“Yeah I'm fine, it's just a scratch,” he groaned, not in the mood for chit-chat.

“Let me see,” said Peter right before warm fingers were closing around his wrist and pushing his hand away from his side.

Johnny looked down then to find Peter bent next to him, looking at the red tear on his costume with furrowed brows.

“It doesn't look too deep or like you need stitches, but you should get it looked at anyway, just to be sure,” he said, looking up at Johnny's mask under his eyelashes, the tiniest of smile curling his lips. “After all, we wouldn't want you to be benched for too long just because of Doctor Ego right here.”

Johnny scoffed, making Peter's smile grow larger, and rolled his eyes even though the other couldn't see it before putting his hand back against his wound.

“Doctor Ego sounds about right. Where is that guy even coming from?”

“Eastern Europe, I think,” replied Peter, straightening up and turning to look at Reed and Victor still spitting insults at each other on the other side of the street. “There's a lot of history between the two of them, so it's probably gonna be long.”

“What? Did Mister Fantastic break up with him because of the ugly BDSM outfit?”

Peter snorted loudly.

“I don't know the full story, but yeah, kinda.”

“How typical.”

They stood next to each other for a while, not saying anything, just watching Reed and Victor grow more and more agitated with each remark from the other, until finally Victor, with so much flourish, even Johnny thought it was too dramatic, disappeared in a cloud of green smoke after making two cars explode.

“Waoh, _that_ was anti-climatic,” commented Peter, turning to Johnny again to discover him already mid-air and swinging from a thread of web. “Hey! You're already leaving?” he called.

“Yeah, got stuff to do!” Johnny called back before disappearing around a corner.

The truth was that he had been in the living-room watching a movie when the Fantastic Four had received an alert about a super-villain attack, and Johnny was pretty sure that they were expecting to find him right where they had left him when they came home and taking a two minutes long shower would be nice – but considering that he had to bandage himself up before, it probably meant that the shower would be only one minute long, if he was lucky.

Fortunately, Aunt Marygay was at home when he practically crashed through his bedroom's window, and she helped him take the top part of his costume off before lowering him down in a warm bath with a strict order to not move while she went hunting for something to bandage him up.

Johnny did just as he was told, relaxing back into the bathtub and letting each of his muscles slowly relax, letting his head fall back against the edge of the tub and his eyes close. He drifted off a little, because when he came back to himself, Aunt Marygay was back by his side, scowling, and Ben's loud voice could be heard through the bathroom's door.

“Johnny, you need to get up. They're back and Sue is looking for you.”

Nodding, he slowly stood on weak legs – and _woah_ , he hadn't realized how many bad hits he had taken during the fight up until now – and let his Aunt maneuver him onto the toilet's closed seat and patch him up as quickly and efficiently as she could.

Once it was done she gave him one last critical look, her lips pursed in what he interpreted as disapproval, and slipped out of the room without a noise, leaving him to wiggle out of his wet spandex pants – which was even harder to do than with jeans – and put on the clothes she had gotten.

Really, Aunt Marygay was the best, he thought as he excited the bathroom, went to his bedroom to hid the second half of his costume and just had time to sit down on his bed and grab his phone to pretend that he was looking at it before Sue was opening his door without knocking and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Where were you? I've been looking for you for twenty minutes.”

“Why, something happened?” he asked, dodging her question.

“No, I just wanted to see you.”

Johnny rolled his eyes at that, because after abandoning him for more than two years, Sue was constantly trying to be with him at all times now that she was back, and it was really starting to get on his nerves. The fact that she would rather fake interest for him now rather than own up to the fact that she had abandoned him was making it even worse.

“You've seen me,” he said, looking back down at his phone and clicking on a random app, “I'm still here, I'm fine, you can leave.”

“Johnny...” she sighed, in that tone she always used when she thought he was being difficult about something stupid, and the pain and fatigue from the fight, along with that tone that he always associated with Sue not caring one bit about what he wanted or needed had him jump to his feet in a sudden fit of rage, throw his phone on his mattress and clench his jaw until it hurt.

“ _What?!_ ” he bit, letting all his annoyance transpire through his body language. “What do you want?”

“I just want to talk!” she bit back, frowning even more and tensing up, “why are you being like that? I don't want to fight you!”

“No, instead you want me gone, and that's actually worse!”

“I've never said that! You know it's not true!”

“Oh no, you said it _loud and clear_ the day you told me you would leave for two years plus and I wasn't invited, because it's all fun and game when Johnny's here to design the fucking space ship getting everyone up in space, but as soon as the action starts, he needs to kindly stay home and wait for everyone to come back!”

“I did it to protect you!” she retorted, voice growing louder.

“You did it because you wanted to get rid of me, like you've always wanted, and it was the best excuse!”

Sue took a step back, covering her mouth with a hand and looking like she had just been slapped.

Good, Johnny hoped it hurt as much as it had hurt to have been left behind.

Without a word he brushed past her, leaving his phone on the mattress, and quickly crossed the entire floor to join the elevator and get the hell out of here.

Peter, Ben and Aunt Marygay were all standing in the living-room's doorframe, staring at him when he got out of the bedroom, but no one tried to stop him – and truthfully, he didn't know how he'd have reacted if someone had.

 

 

***

 

 

Sue grew a little more distant after that. She still tried to hang out with him, and pretended to be interested in what he did or liked, but she didn't force it when it was clear that Johnny was annoyed and didn't want to talk to her. Ben stopped annoying him so much for all of two days before he was back to his old ways, and Peter, weirdly, became disdainful toward him.

Johnny hadn't seen it coming, and frankly didn't understand what the hell was Peter's problem, but it just gave him one more reason to hate the asshole, so he wasn't really complaining.

The problem, though, was that, at the same time, Spiderman was running more often than not into the Fantastic Four, and The Human Torch seemed to like him a lot. He was constantly trying to start a conversation, asking him about his whereabouts or showing up to fight by his side whenever Spiderman was fighting anything bigger than a back alley mugger.

Johnny was pretty sure it was the Universe's way of being ironic.

Aunt Marygay just laughed at him when he told her.

“You don't understand!” he cried out, throwing his hands up in the air in irritation, “I think he wants to be my _friend_! With a capital F! Like BFF level of friendship! He keeps on buying me hotdogs!”

“Do you eat them?”

“Yeah, you raised me correctly, I never say no to free food.”

His aunt nodded solemnly, as if the answer to that question was capital or something, then she lightly patted him on the arm and offered him the least sympathetic smile he had ever seen.

“I guess you just need to accept this friendship right now. Free food means no backing up. Just accept it. And eat the hotdogs.”

Johnny's shoulders dropped in defeat and he slouched over himself, feeling his vital force being drained out of him with the simple _idea_ of being the Fake Human Torch's friend – because being _the_ Real Human Torch's friend would have been badass, but of course no, he had to settle for the knock-off who hated real-him's guts.

Who would have thought that the biggest hardship of being a superhero would be to have to hang out with his arch-nemesis because he was a slut for free hotdogs?

 

 

***

 

 

The bad thing about the Four being out with their identity was that nothing was hiding Peter's stupid asshole-y face. The good thing about it was that Johnny could clearly see his stupid and hilarious flabbergasted expression, and really, he should have brought his phone with him just to take a photo of that face and keep it for posterity.

 

“Wait, what?” asked Peter, running a hand through his already messy beyond saving hair. “I need you to repeat what you just said.”

“I said, let's get hotdogs, on you.”

Peter just blinked stupidly, gasping like a fish out of the water.

“Are you telling me that you're finally not resisting this great friend we could have going anymore?”

“Someone advised me to surrender to the inevitable and just make the best out of all the free food I can get.”

Peter laughed, loud and happy, and the sound had something inside Johnny's gut squeeze uncomfortably, because he had never heard this sound coming out of him in all the time they had lived together, and that was _weird_ , right?

He couldn't dwell on it for too long unfortunately, because two seconds later Peter was throwing an arm around his shoulders and squeezing him close to his side, and the height difference meant that they actually fit perfectly like that, and what a disgusting thought it was to have about this asshole!

“Come on then,” said Peter, smiling brightly down at him, his arm a very warm but not that horrible weight on his shoulders, “and to celebrate your surrendering let's do kebab instead of hotdogs, alright?”

Johnny groaned.

“Whatever. I'm just here for the free and greasy food.”

Peter laughed that laugh again, squeezing him closer one last time before he was letting go, stepping back and flaming on.

“Race you?” he asked with a shit-eating grin right before taking off.

“I don't know where that kebab is!” Johnny yelled to his flaming and already disappearing back, but he still went after him, rolling his eyes for good form.

Maybe selling himself out to Peter Parker for food wouldn't be so bad.

 

 

***

 

 

With autumn came Sue's new attempt at trying to know more about Johnny. It started on a Monday morning when Johnny came into the kitchen to eat his breakfast only to find Sue already sitting there by herself.

“Have you thought about college?” she asked right after he had taken his first sip of coffee.

Johnny resisted throwing his cup and its content at the closest flat surface and storming out and took three deep breaths instead, trying to center himself like the guy in the yoga videos had said.

“I have,” he replied when he was sure that he wouldn't start screaming at his sister as soon as he opened his mouth, which wasn't exactly a lie.

He had thought about college for about three seconds the first time the subject had been brought up in high school before deciding that it was one of the last thing he wanted to do with his life.

He'd literally rather fight Sandman _every single day of the week_ than go to college.

“And?” pressed Sue, threading her fingers together on the table and slightly pursing her lips, like she was waiting for a punchline or something.

“I'd rather be a kept man with my sugar daddies the Fantastic Four taking care of my material needs,” he replied with a shit-eating grin.

Hey, he couldn't pass an occasion to say that.

Sue, apparently, didn't think that it was that funny since she looked up at the ceiling for half a minute, probably asking the god of patience to help her have some, before she was flattening her hands on the table-top and looking straight into his eyes.

“Johnny, you need to find something to do with your life,” she said, more serious than he had ever seen her.

Or actually the last and only time he had seen her being so serious was the day she told him he wouldn't come to their great family adventure in space. _That_ had been fun, and he really wasn't in the mood for an encore.

“I'm doing something with my life!” he protested, because it was true, even if Sue had no idea what that was.

“Johnny,” she said, and there was that tone again, “watching Netflix doesn't count.”

Rolling his eyes and sighing deeply, Johnny counted to ten in his head, sending a quick praying to the god of patience too, and crossed his arms over his chest, getting ready for the fight to come.

“I'm looking for a job,” he said.

“What kind of job?”

“The kind that pays me at the end of the month, or the week or whatever.”

Sue narrowed her eyes.

“Johnny, you need to be more serious.”

“And you need to get off my back and let me live my life.”

“I won't let you do nothing until the ends of time.”

“I'm not doing _nothing_!”

Raising an eyebrow, Sue sat back against the back of her chair and crossed her arms too, looking like she didn't believe a single thing he was saying – which he knew to be true. Sue _never_ believed him. He was pretty sure if he one day landed right in front of her as Spiderman and took his mask off, she'd find a way to convince herself that it wasn't true.

“Community colleges are good, you know. You don't need to get into a big name college to get a good education. Your grades weren't bad all through high school, I don't see why you shouldn't pursue it.”

“Because I don't want to,” immediately replied Johnny, voice raising, “and I know you couldn't care less about what I want, but this is my future, I won't let you try to convince me that the choices I'm making are shit, because they're not. I know what's best for me better than you ever will.”

“Don't be ridiculous. Aimlessly drifting through life is _never_ a good choice.”

Johnny's cup's handle cracked under his fingers, and he only realized that he was holding it in a tight grip when he looked down at his hand and slowly unclenched his fingers.

He wanted to punch right through the table, or a wall, but that kind of strength would be hard to explain when it went against Ben-proof furniture, so instead he slowly got up, leaving his uneaten breakfast on the table, and went back to his bedroom in silence, locking the door behind him, quickly putting his Spiderman costume on and slipping into the air-vent in the direction of the roof.

Once he was up there he started running for the edge and unceremoniously jumped over it, closing his eyes and letting himself free fall and feel the wind roar around him, his mind blissfully emptying for the duration of his fall, right up until he had no other choice but to throw web at a building and swing back up, soaring through the sky with an unnecessary backflip, distantly registering that people down on the street were clapping, whooping and pointing fingers and phones at him.

This, he thought, was what he did, and it was _important_. More so than anything else he could ever do, and there was no way Sue wouldn't try to push him to the side again if she knew about it.

This was too important and too much to tell anyone other than Aunt Marygay, and if it brought the others' judgment just because they had no idea about what he did, then so be it. Johnny had nothing to prove to anyone.

 

 

***

 

 

The Human Torch found him on top of the Statue of Liberty ten hours later, once the sun was starting to set and tinting everything in shades of orange and purple.

“Are you okay?” he asked, floating a meter away from the edge where Johnny was kicking his legs like a child.

Johnny shrugged, eyes turned to his knees and shoulders slouched in defeat. He was feeling pathetic, and like a scolded child, and the fact that ten minutes with Sue could have that much effect on him for so many hours made him think that no matter how much he pretended to be over it and grown up now, deep down he was still a scared orphan with nothing and no one except for his big sister.

“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Peter.

Johnny shook his head without looking up.

“Alright… Do you want me gone or can I sit?”

Johnny patted the space next to him instead of replying, and half a second later Peter was flaming off and sitting down next to him, still feeling way too warm despite the space between their body and the layers of spandex.

For a while, they sat in silence, the sound of the wind and the distant waves being the only noise reaching them.

Peter was the first one to break it with:

“You never asked me who it was that you saved.”

Johnny shrugged, his shoulder brushing against Peter's.

“It was my uncle. One night, in Queens, he was held at gunpoint by a mugger, and you stopped him from pressing the trigger.”

That sounded like so many of his nights, Johnny was becoming depressed by New York's crime rate. Each night he saved another uncle, or an aunt, or a sibling, or someone's spouse.

“What's his name?” he asked instead of dwelling on it.

“Ben.”

Johnny smiled slightly.

“Glad I could save your Uncle Ben then.”

Peter replied by knocking his shoulder against his, his warmth feeling soothing under the growing darkness and the loneliness of the ocean at their feet.

Up here, after a day like that, Johnny realized that he could start to like having a friend like him once in a while.

 

 

***

 

 

One day, Ben Grimm, who didn't entirely deserve the nickname 'The Thing' just this once, sat him down, looked right into his eyes and announced, his voice a low rumble, as if he was afraid of being heard: “I know you're hiding something kid, and I really hope it's not dangerous.”

 _Great_ , Johnny thought. Now was the time to either pretend to be a spy working for the enemy, or to pray that he looked really stupid so the innocent air-head act could work.

He tried to 'I'm stupid and don't understand a single word you're saying' thing first, looking up at Ben from under his eyelashes and slowly batting them.

Ben frowned.

“Stop playing kid, I know you're not as stupid as you look.”

“Stop calling me kid then,” snapped Johnny, already annoyed by that conversation.

Ben gave him a smirk for that, and proceeded to lean forward and put his elbows on his knees, narrowing his eyes.

“Tell me what the hell you're doing in the vents all the time.”

Johnny had to admit that he was impressed. He had taken care of the surveillance in some vents himself, and he knew Reed never thought about checking them.

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“I saw you get out of them the other night and limp to your bedroom, so I'm asking again, tell me what the hell it is that you do.”

“That's not a question...” mumbled Johnny, trying to gain some time to think and inwardly cursing himself for being so stupid and imprudent.

A guy who had named himself the Green Goblin was giving him difficulty recently – and really, who the hell called themselves Green Goblin? – and he couldn't _believe_ that he had been so out of it that he'd acted so recklessly.

That kind of shit _wasn't_ supposed to happen. Not _ever_. And certainly not now that Sue had gotten Reed on his case too.

“Look,” he tried valiantly, “I don't know what you thought you saw–”

“Is it drugs?” Ben cut him.

“What?!”

“Are you doing drugs?”

Johnny started laughing – which probably wasn't the best reaction judging by Ben's frown that became even more pronounced, but _come on_ , drugs?!

“Aunt Marygay and Sue would kill me so much,” he snorted, not managing to calm down for several minutes.

Johnny Storm doing drugs, he couldn't think of anything more ridiculous.

“You're part of something illegal, I know it, and if it ain't drugs then it gotta be something else, and you're gonna tell me what.”

Johnny didn't stop laughing for an entire minute before finally calming down when it dawned on him that he was screwed. Ben wouldn't let it go until Johnny told him the truth, and for some reason he had an internal lie detector when it came to the blond. Somehow, he _always_ knew whether Johnny was telling the truth or not.

“Okay, I'll tell you,” sighed Johnny after the shortest internal battle ever, “but you have to promise that you're not telling _anyone_. Especially not Sue.”

“If it's dangerous I'm gonna have to tell her or your aunt, and you know it.”

Johnny rolled his eyes and sighed, exasperated.

“I'm legally an adult now, you know? No one has to tell anyone anything. Besides, Aunt Marygay already knows.”

 _That_ had Ben stop frowning so badly as he straightened up , now looking more intrigued than anything else.

“I'm listening,” he said.

It was best to tell him without beating around the bush, and Johnny had a feeling that the other man would trust him, so he simply announced, without any flourish, “I'm Spiderman.”

Ben didn't reply or react. He just blinked, once, staring and making Johnny nervously bite down on his lips, feeling stupid.

It already felt super weird to say it out loud for the first time, that kind of reaction was really not helping.

“Okay, I think I just broke you,” he said when it felt like one entire eternity had passed and Ben still wasn't moving nor speaking, “or maybe you just don't believe me, in which case it's great but I still need you to keep your mouth shut about it.”

“Oh no, I believe you,” replied Ben, blinking again and suddenly snapping out of his torpor, “The pieces were just finally all clicking together in my head, and it has to be the funniest thing I've _ever_ heard. Ever.”

Johnny frowned. “What's so funny about me being Spidey?”

“Oh nothing, it's the fact that Peter can't shut up about any of your persona for entirely different reasons that's absolutely hilarious,” he replied, before making his thinking face and promptly starting to howl with laughter.

“Oh my god,” groaned Johnny, “stop laughing!”

“It's so funny!”

“I know, but it's also terrible, so please don't kick a man already on the ground.”

Ben tried, really hard, Johnny could tell, but it was apparently too hard because it still took him several minutes until he was just hiccuping.

“Oh god!” he said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, “your life sucks so much!”

“Waoh, thanks,” deadpanned Johnny, _really_ not amused.

He knew how ridiculous it was, that Peter's best friend was Spiderman yet he hated Johnny Storm _so_ much, it almost got to the point of fist fighting. Truthfully, Johnny didn't know how to feel about him. When he was Spiderman, he liked Peter _a lot_. The guy was funny, and nice, and always there for him, but as soon as Johnny took the mask off Peter turned cold, mean and cruel.

He _really_ didn't know how to feel.

“Anyway, now that you know what I was doing in the vent, are you gonna leave me alone?”

“Are you kidding?” asked Ben, raising an eyebrow, “I saw some guy throw you _through_ a brick wall not three days ago. We might not be the bestest of friends like Spidey and Peter,” he paused to snort at Johnny's dramatic eyeroll, “but you're still you, and now that I know about it I'm gonna keep a close eye on you.”

Johnny groaned loudly.

“See! This is why I didn't want anyone to know! You guys can't even trust me, even when I've been a superhero for two entire years longer than you.”

“It has nothing to do with trust, kiddo,” said Ben, suddenly dead serious and staring right at Johnny – and straight through him too, because he could currently feel those eyes on his _soul_. “It's about you being on your own when you could be a part of the team.”

“The team clearly doesn't want me, and I don't need you.”

Ben looked a little hurt at that, and Johnny just couldn't take the hypocrisy.

Apparently he could only like Ben ten minutes at a time, and they were up.

“Just don't tell Sue. Or _Peter_ ,” he said before getting up and leaving the room.

“They'll figure it out too!” called Ben to his back.

Johnny decided to ignore him.

 

 

***

 

 

For the following days Johnny couldn't stop thinking about what Ben had said. _Peter can't shut up about any of your persona for entirely different reasons,_ he wondered what that meant, exactly. 

He had never heard Peter talk about Spiderman.

Then again, he tended to  _never_ be around Peter when he wasn't masked, or cut the moment short whenever it happened. Some days, it was hard to remember that most of the stuff Peter told him about himself weren't supposed to be known by Johnny Storm, and he was constantly scared of saying too much.

On the other hand, Peter had never said anything about Johnny to Spidey. He mostly spoke about himself, his aunt and uncle and, from time to time, the team, but Spiderman tried to never bring the conversation there if he could help it, that fear of saying something he shouldn't still being here.

His curiosity, however, was starting to eat him up alive, so he did something absolutely horrible and terrible and that he really shouldn't have done: he asked Peter about Jonathan Storm.

Now, of course he did it smoothly, by first talking about anything and everything with him. They were at their usual spot, the top of the Statue of Liberty, sitting close together so Peter could keep Johnny warm despite the cold wind, their shoulders and arms touching. It felt like a good moment to bring it up, and Johnny found his courage during a short but comfortable silence.

“Sue's brother?” repeated Peter, looking stunned.

“Yeah,” nodded Spiderman, because it was hard to convey facial expressions with a mask on, “I read in some tabloids that she has one.”

Peter looked away, which was the first sign that bad things would follow.

“We're not that close,” he said, his voice sounding strange, like something was stuck in his throat.

“Why not?” asked Johnny, trying to sound uninterested and not like he was fishing for info.

“He's just… different than me. We don't have the same interests, or hobbies, and we have nothing to talk about because my daily life involves fighting aliens and saving the world, and his involves… well, memes, I guess, and the Bachelor's latest season.”

Johnny frowned under his mask, confused.

Was that really what Peter thought he did all day long? Look at internet memes and watch reality tv?

Then again, maybe the fact that Johnny pretended to lock himself up in his bedroom all day long so he could slip out and fight crime didn't help with the image Peter had of him.

“So… you don't like him much?”

“It's not that… I just hate that he's such a disappointment.”

A punch in the stomach and a knee between the legs _at the same time_ would have hurt less.

His cheekbones started to burn in shame and Johnny had to swallow through the sudden knot in his throat just so he could make a weird “yeah?” that sounded more like a croak than a word.

“He's _so_ smart, you know. To the point that he actually _designed_ the spaceship that took us up there, and his notes were an invaluable help all through the mission, but instead of pursuing his genius, he chooses to waste his life.”

Johnny could feel himself grow paler with each word, unable to believe that he was hearing this.

“Waste his life...” he repeated, his voice sounding distant and strange to his own ears, “Aren't you being harsh?”

Peter scoffed, the sound sending a spike of hurt and shame straight to his heart.

“If you knew him you'd think the same. He's frustrating, and too proud to listen when we're trying to help him.”

Johnny was regretting bringing it up, but Peter seemed to be on a roll and didn't stop talking when Johnny tried to interrupt him.

“He's still mad at me because I went to space with the others, and he doesn't realize or want to accept that Sue did him a _huge_ favor by forcing him to stay back.”

“It must have been hard to be left alone like that,” Johnny managed to say when Peter just smiled bitterly down at his knees at the end of his sentence.

Johnny's hands were starting to sweat and his stomach was trying to tie itself into a knot, making him feel slightly nauseous.

“Please,” replied Peter, rolling his eyes, “I don't think he realizes what it takes to travel to space. It was hard for us too, harder than what he had to go through. And contrary to what he thinks, what happened to the four of us was horrifying, not something to be jealous of because he missed out on it.”

Johnny had nothing to reply to that, first of all because he wasn't sure whether he was more angry or hurt, and second of all, because he was pretty sure that he was going to cry if he opened his mouth – from rage or pain or shame, it didn't matter.

Peter didn't add anything, and the subject was dropped.

 

 

***

 

 

After that, Johnny couldn't really face anyone. Peter's words were haunting him, and he kept on wondering whether the others thought the same too, to the point of paranoia. He couldn't help but wonder if everyone had always looked at him so critically. If it had always seemed like every time he entered a room, they stopped talking. If they had always looked so exasperated when he spoke.

It short, it was driving him crazy and he spent even more time secluded in his bedroom, or brooding on top of the shadiest buildings he could find, sure that the Four would never willingly go to these places.

It got to the point where the Torch was writing messages in the sky, asking him to meet him at their usual spot, which Johnny ignored.

The worst thing about it though, was that Johnny _knew_ that he should have been expecting that kind of reaction from Peter. And the fact that it was affecting him so much was making him angry at himself, and bitter, because deep down, he had still been hoping for a different answer.

Ant that's how Johnny realized that he wanted Peter to like him. _A lot_.

Worse, that he was _aching_ for some sort of proof that Peter didn't totally hate him and thought that he was a useless and arrogant tool too stupid to do something with his life.

 _Holy shit_ was his first reaction to his epiphany.

Then, he decided that he might as well try to do something about it.

 

 

***

 

 

Johnny couldn't come up with any plan of action, so he chose to do the one thing he knew he excelled at: look pretty and chat him up.

The first time he tried it was in the kitchen, where Peter was fixing himself a sandwich and Johnny pretending to look at apples and hesitating on which one he should eat.

“Sooo,” he started after a beat, leaning against the kitchen island and plastering his most charming smile on his face, the one with the dimples and all.

Peter turned the world's most uninterested look ever on him and raised an eyebrow.

“What's up?” lamely asked Johnny, his smile dimming a little, because looking _right_ into those eyes was kind of making him feel jittery, and it was only partially because he was still mortified.

“Nothing,” snapped Peter before turning back to his sandwich and cutting a slice of cucumber so violently that the whole vegetable jumped and fell to the floor.

The two of them just stared at it for a beat without speaking.

“Waoh,” finally said Johnny, looking back up at him and feeling a nervous lump blocking off his throat, “sorry for making you so mad dude, I was just wondering.”

Peter sighed heavily, his shoulders dropping in defeat as he put his knife down on the counter and turned to lean a hip against it, now facing Johnny.

“I'm sorry,” he said – and okay, _what_? Peter had _never_ apologized for ever snapping or yelling or cursing at him. Hell, he had almost burned him once and even then he hadn't done more than groan at him something that sounded like the word sorry.

It was _weird_.

“I'm… I'm just really… on the edge,” he said, closing his eyes and slouching over himself, looking more pathetic than Johnny had even seen him. “And it may have come to my attention that I uh… I haven't always been the nicest guy alive to you so uh… I'm sorry for that.”

Johnny just gaped, not believing his ears, heart in his throat and beating hard enough that it was starting to hurt.

“Anyway,” added Peter with an awkward cough before literally storming out of the kitchen, abandoning the cucumber on the floor and his half made sandwich on the counter.

Johnny stayed glued on his spot until Ben stuck his head through the doorframe, a tiny smirk on the corner of the lips.

“I don't know why, but somehow he thinks that Spidey not talking to him anymore has something to do with something he said to him. Do you know anything about that?”

“I can't believe you told him to apologize to me,” replied Johnny, narrowing his eyes at him and feeling the bitter taste of disappointment on his tongue. If it didn't truly come from Peter then what he had just said didn't matter one bit.

“It wasn't like that. I just remarked, when he said that Spidey and him talked about you, that he sometimes didn't realize how harsh he could sound. And that Spidey could interpreter it the wrong way.”

Johnny was wary, didn't dare get his hope up that Peter's words had been harsher than his thoughts, but his stupid heart didn't care about what Johnny dared or not, and just like that he was feeling less crushed.

Ben gave him a cheeky grin before disappearing, and Johnny wondered what the Thing had seen on his face, and why the hell he had even talked to Peter in the first place.

 

 

***

 

 

Now that this was done and Johnny, whether he liked it or not, had some hope about the future of his relationship with Peter, he decided that Spiderman should probably stop avoiding him and be his friend again.

The simple thought of meeting and freely talking to Peter almost everyday again had several of his internal organs fluttering in joy, but before he could totally stop and panic at the idea – because fluttering organs could only mean one thing, right? And he was in so much shit if what he thought was happening was  _actually_ happening – three different attacks, from three different bad guys started at the exact same time.

Johnny groaned when he realized that and quickly jumped off the rooftop he had been sitting on to swing to the closest attack.

The ensuing fights happened so quickly, and Johnny took so many hits, mostly in the head, that he couldn't really recall them. All he knew was that the first one had been against Namor, turned back to villain for the week, the second one was against a small team of various villains who had realized that there was strength in unity, and the last, hardest and longest fight had been against an army of aliens, trying to colonize Earth or something – they never did clearly state why they were bombing New York, or why it was always New York under attack, actually.

The first fight against Namor had ended quickly because the guy had turned somewhat-good half-way through it when he had realized that aliens had came to the party. Johnny got himself a concussion and at least two cracked ribs during the second fight, and by the time the big muscles arrived for the third fight, his sight was already blurry, he was bleeding in too many spots to count, and he was pretty sure his wrist didn't usually bend that way.

Also, he literally fainted mid-jump, fifty feet up in the air – but didn't die, apparently, because he woke up in a bed, with a warm hand touching his forearm and a soft voice telling him to stay still and that everything was going to be alright.

The voice and the hand were the first things that clicked for Johnny. They were both Peter's, and that had him panic during the entire second it took him to will his eyes open, then he realized that his mask was still firmly on his face, even if bits were missing near his temple because of an alien's weapon.

“Hey” murmured Peter, smiling warmly down at him, his fingers squeezing Johnny's forearm just a tad bit tighter, “you scared the hell out of me, you know.”

“What happened?” slurred Johnny, blinking up at Peter's close face, before he looked down at his bare arm.

He was pretty sure he had been wearing his uniform before passing out.

“You dropped down from the sky like a dead-weight, I thought you were dead or something. Thankfully I was close enough to catch you, and the fight was ending, otherwise...”

He didn't finish his sentence, but he did bite down on his lower lip and grabbed Johnny's hand with his free one and squeezed his fingers.

It felt nice if, you know, Johnny concentrated on that and didn't pay any attention to his pulsating head and the fact that his entire chest was burning.

When he looked down at himself, he realized that yes, he had been stripped of his uniform's top part, and there was one large bandage wrapped around him, hiding everything from his armpits to his navel, and his left hand was in a cast – and he was  _fucked_ , because there was no way Johnny Storm could hide that and not have everyone put two and two together.

“Hey, um,” he coughed awkwardly, trying to find something to say and not move his fingers that Peter wasn't letting go of, “thanks, I guess.”

Peter's entire face turned softer and the hand he had on his forearm slowly moved up his arm, raising goosebumps on the way, to reach Johnny's shoulder and gently squeeze it, the gesture feeling entirely too personal and making Johnny's heart jump widely in his chest.

“You have several broken ribs, and there was a _hole_ in your side, so you probably shouldn't move but...”

Before Johnny could ask him why he had trailed off Peter was leaning over him, wrapping both arms around his shoulder and looping his chin over his right shoulder, his breath hitting the back of Johnny's neck.

He squeezed hard, and Johnny squeezed back just as hard, mostly as a reflex but also because his brain was screaming at him to do something with his hands.

“Please, don't ever do that again,” murmured Peter against his skin, one of his hand moving to cup the back of his neck, his fingers slipping under Johnny's mask to gently scratch at the baby hair there.

Johnny hummed in pleasure and nodded, turning his head just enough so that his nose was pressed against Peter's jaw.

He had no idea what he was doing, and it was probably a super bad idea, but Peter's entire body was deliciously warm, and his fingers were doing magical things to the tight muscles in the back of his neck, and he was pretty sure the feeling of panic he should have been feeling was being drowned out by the loud beats of his heart and the flutter of the butterflies in his stomach.

In short, yes, what he had feared was happening was, in fact, happening.

He was in love with his arch-nemesis.

But so far, as long as said nemesis was hugging him close, he was pretty okay with it – but that probably also had to do with the fact that he was concussed. Who knew.

“Peter,” he half-sighed, half-mumured, because concussed or not, now seemed like a very good time to do something extremely stupid, “Peter, I love you so much.”

Peter's breath hitched against his skin, and Johnny whined when the brunet slowly straightened up, his fingers leaving his nape as he leaned a forearm near his head to look into his eyes.

_Waoh_ , Johnny was pretty sure he had never realized how  _pretty_ those hazel eyes were.

“Let me see you,” whispered Peter, managing to look right back into his eyes despite the mask blocking his view – and despite all the alarms in Johnny's brain getting off, he still unwrapped his arms from around Peter and reached up to take it off.

That should serve as a lesson to the dangers of too many concussions mixed with hormones.

“Are you sure?” he murmured when his mouth and the tip of his nose were visible, the most that Peter had ever seen, and when the other nodded, staring at his lips like he was hungry, Johnny didn't hesitate.

He should have, because as soon as the mask was off and dropped down on the mattress, Peter jumped back so quickly, he fell of f the bed and on his ass onto the floor, mouth and eyes wide open. Johnny was sitting up just as quickly, groaning in pain as soon as it was done and having to stop to try  and breathe through the pain and the constricting bandage.

“What kind of sick joke is that?!” exclaimed the brunet from the floor, sounding on the verge of hysteria and growing paler by the second.

“Look,” said Johnny, the alarms in his head growing louder as he finally realized what he had done, “I can explain everything alright, just, keep your calm, okay?”

“My calm?!” screamed Peter, laughing nervously, “What the fuck?! What! The! Fuck! How can I keep my calm when you're… You're...” He gestured to Johnny's entire body, looking like it was paining him to look at the blond for too long, before he was turning his head and staring at the wall near the door.

“I'm Spidey,” Johnny finished for him, feeling his heart sink down to the bottom of his stomach when Peter made a disgusted face. “I know it's shocking, and considering how _highly_ you think of me...” he trailed off, bitter and hurt.

“Oh god...” moaned Peter, sending him a panicked look before hiding his face behind his hands and groaning some more into them. “Oh god!” he repeated, voice muffled, “I insulted you right to your face!”

I t could have been funny, but Johnny was tired, and his entire body was hurting  so his patience was really growing thin, and he couldn't understand why Peter looked so disgusted. Hadn't he apologized for being such an asshole to Johnny not a week ago? W a s it really  _that_ shocking to think that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't as shallow as the brunet thought?

“I can't believe you never said anything...” said Peter, keeping his face firmly hidden behind his palms. “I told you so many personal stuff, and you _never_ told me!”

“That's the point of a secret identity. That people _don't_ know who I am.”

Peter's head snapped up and he glared at Johnny with so much force, he could feel the burning heat of it on his skin.

“I bared my soul out to you, and the _entire_ time you were Johnny fucking Storm! The one guy I hate more than anything in the _entire_ world!”

“Oh _great_ , now that you know who I am you can finally insult me right in front of my face, exactly what I need right now!” replied Johnny, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration, his pain slowly turning into irritation.

“ _Oh please_ ,” Peter rolled his eyes, finally getting up and crossing his arms, his shoulders tight and his jaw set, looking ready for a fight, “I bet you were secretly laughing your head off the whole time I told you my darkest secrets. You probably liked it too, whenever I told you about my parents, or Gwen, or–”

“Oh for God's sake!” yelled Johnny, cutting him off. “Do you hear what you're saying? Do you really think that I'm such a terrible monster?! I never did anything to you, you're the asshole in the story, who started insulting me the second we were introduced, who's always been condescending, and treating me like the worst moron you've ever met! I never forced you to tell me anything, you decided to be Spidey's friend all by yourself, and actually even forced my hand, so don't you dare twist this and make it my fault. You're the one laughing at me behind my back with whoever will listen.”

Peter just glared, lips pursed so much, they were almost invisible.

For a beat, they just both stared at each other. Peter's hate for him palpable in the air, feeling heavy on his skin and making it hard to breathe. Johnny didn't exactly know what kind of face he was making, because to be quite honest he wasn't even feeling his face anymore. The only thing he was sure of was that Peter must have been able to hear his heart with how hard it was beating in his throat, and he was feeling so jittery, it was a miracle he could stand sitting upright without falling down on the floor.

The moment had to end though, and it was Peter who looked away first, turning around to face the door and leaving without another word, letting it fall shut behind him.

Even if he had wanted to, Johnny couldn't have followed him, because about two seconds later he passed out.

 

 

***

 

 

The next time he woke up, it was to Aunt Marygay and Sue staring down at him.

Aunt Marygay looked sorry, and was frowning slightly. Sue looked plain scary, and Johnny didn't have to think too long about why, since she was holding his mask in a white-knuckled grip.

“Before you say anything,” she said when he opened his mouth to at least try to find an excuse or something to pacify her, “I recognized you long before you took your mask off.”

“She saw the scar on your hip when we bandaged you,” added Aunt Marygay.

Johnny sighed, and closed his eyes one second just to curse the universe and all the crap it was throwing at him.

He had almost impaled himself with a big branch when he was nine, resulting in a very stressful trip to the ER and a scar for life on the right hip, and being recognized by his sister because of it had to be one of the lamest things to ever happen to him.

“I can explain,” he said, voice coming off tiny and scared, like he was a scolded child – and he hated himself a little for that.

“Like you explained yourself to Peter?” asked Sue, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

It was a low blow, and Johnny had no idea how much time had passed or what Peter had told her, but she _shouldn't_ have said that, and Aunt Marygay seemed to agree with him if the way she turned a severe look on Sue was any clue.

“Sue...” started Aunt Marygay in a warning tone.

“I don't know what the hell happened between the two of you,” she replied, raising a hand as if to appease their aunt, “and frankly that's not my main concern here. What I want to know, is why on Earth did you think it was okay to become Spiderman and not tell me.”

“You were too busy training to go to space,” immediately replied Johnny, feeling himself flush with anger and something darker and bitter.

Sue only narrowed her eyes, and for the first time ever, he really wanted to hit her.

“I came back _months_ ago. _Hell_ , I've almost spent more time back than apart from you, yet you still didn't think that it would be wise to sit me down and tell me the truth?!”

“Your reaction to me finding a job was to sit me down and tell me all about which university would be the best for me. I can only imagine what your reaction would have been if I had done that.”

“You should have told me.”

“Like you told me that you'd leave for who knew how long only a week before the departure date?”

It was Sue's turn to flush, and Johnny didn't miss the way Aunt Marygay stepped up, placing herself right between the two of them.

“I'm tired,” he added when his sister opened her mouth to retort, “Can I sleep?”

“I'm not gonna let you come so close to death again,” she warned, pointing a menacing index in the direction of his chest before she was storming out of the room.

Aunt Marygay raised an eyebrow and sat down next to him on the bed, sympathetically patting him on the thigh.

“Now's the time to tell me that you've told me so,” sighed Johnny.

“We were all scared for you today,” replied his aunt, ignoring what he had just said, “and you know how she gets. She'll want you to stop at first, but eventually she'll change her mind.”

“Great… what do I do in the mean time?”

“You come with me,” replied Aunt Marygay, smiling slightly. “I'm going home.”

Johnny managed to smile back, but only because his aunt was the best, and getting away from everyone was the only good news about that catastrophic chain of events.

 

 

***

 

 

Moving out of the Baxter Building and to his aunt's house in upstate New York was uneventful at best. Ben and Reed helped with their things, because Johnny's hand was still in a cast and his ribs were still healing, and neither Sue nor Peter showed up – just like all the days before that. It was like Sue was consciously making the both of them invisible whenever Johnny was here. One second he'd hear one of their voice, and a second later when he entered the room he'd only find Reed blinking in surprise at him, or Aunt Marygay frowning and looking disapproving.

All in all, by the time they got to Aunt Marygay's cozy little house that looked just like in Johnny's memories, he was still crushed, but the future looked slightly brighter, now that no one around him made the air feel heavier and Reed and Ben weren't here to give him pitying looks anymore.

 

 

***

 

 

Johnny lasted about three week before finally falling on the couch one evening while his aunt was watching some stupid cop drama on TV and started moaning long and loud about how boring life was so far away from New York, and how it sucked that his wrist was still broken, and that people were probably missing Spidey, and _he_ was missing Spidey, and suddenly his aunt was turning her dark blue eyes on him, and the look on her face had Johnny regretting ever speaking up.

“We have to talk,” she said, turning the TV off and sitting a little straighter, folding her hands on her lap like she was the Queen of England.

Johnny knew that posture. He had seen it the first day Sue and him had gotten there, after their parent had died and back when Aunt Marygay was running a boarding school and way too busy to take care of two lost kids, but she had still sat in that position and offered them cookie, breaking the ice with a tiny but warm smile and the assurance that they would figure something out so there was no point in worrying.

Little Johnny had trusted her then, and he knew that no matter what she told him, he'd trust her now too.

“You've been Spiderman for several years now, and I know how important it is to you,” she started, sounding grave, “so this is why I am bringing this up. Because you don't want to stop being Spiderman. And I won't force you.”

Johnny nodded, starting to feel nervous.

“Spiderman has been working with the Fantastic Four a lot, ever since they've entered the picture, you can't deny it.”

Shaking his head, Johnny looked down at his hand and his stupid cast.

“Now, I'm not saying that you have to agree with everything any of them say, but you can't deny that the five of you work great together, and maybe trying to make peace and find common ground to start working together again would be a good idea.”

“They don't want me and you know that,” mumbled Johnny, hunching his shoulders and feeling his own words like a blade in the heart.

He knew how great the five of them were, and how much better they could be now that there wasn't this huge secret between them, but he had to see the truth: Sue and Peter didn't want him in the team, or anywhere near them or a fight, Reed probably didn't care one bit, and Ben wouldn't fight the others just for him.

The Fantastic Four were a family, and he had never been a part of it, and today wasn't going to be the day they'd try to include him.

“Talk to me Johnny,” murmured his aunt, gently cupping his cheek in her fresh palm, and it was with shock that he realized she was wiping at tears stuck on his eyelashes.

He had promised himself to _never_ cry over them the night they had left him, and now was not the time to break this promise, so he took a deep and long inhale, closed his eyes to will those stupid tears away, and looked up at his aunt once he was sure that no crying would happen.

“They hate me, and you know that.”

“They don't. The same way you don't hate _them_.”

“Wait, they think I hate them?” he asked, frowning.

His aunt smirked.

“ _Now_ you're starting to understand.”

Johnny abruptly straightened up and grabbed the hand she had on his cheek, squeezing her fingers between his as much as he dared without hurting her.

“What are you saying aunt Marygay?”

“That the things you're thinking about them are maybe the exact same things they're thinking about you.”

He frowned harder, feeling lost and his heart beating way too fast against his still tender ribs.

“You know something.”

“Of course,” she replied, her smirk turning into a grin as she slipped her hand out of his hold and stood up, “but I'm going to let you think it over by yourself now. God knows you need something to do now that you can't slip out of the house at will.”

She patted the top of his head, which should have felt way more insulting that it did, and left the living-room without another word.

Really, Johnny didn't know what he'd do without her in his life.

 

 

***

 

 

Johnny waited another week, just to be sure that everything was nicely healed, before finally slipping the Spiderman costume on in the train station's toilets after the forty minutes train ride from Aunt Marygay's house to New York city.

Being back to freely swinging through the city, with its high buildings and lame villains, felt like the best damn thing to have happened to him in _forever_ – even though it had only been a month since the last time he had done so, so obviously it was right as he was swinging to Manhattan that Doctor Doom appeared near the Avengers Tower, floating in the sky with his cape flapping in the air behind him.

He was screaming at Iron Man and Sue, and Johnny barely had a second to panic at the view of his sister before an actual army of doombots appeared out of nowhere and started attacking everything and everyone.

Johnny dodged two of them , teared off the head of a third one, and jumped down on the sidewalk to stop a robot from killing two civilians by webbing its arms together.

In response the doombot's eyes started flickering and Johnny reacted on pure instinct, grabbing the civilians and webbing the three of them up right before the doombot exploded.

“Fuck,” muttered Johnny as he put the civilians down on a rooftop. He made sure that they were going to be fine by themselves before jumping down into the actual swarm or bots, webbing things left and right and praying that nothing was going to explode straight in his face.

In that mess of metal parts and stupid Doctor Doom masks, Johnny brushed past the Human Torch, who was melting any doombot coming too close, and didn't have time to panic or think too much when the eyes of the doombot closest to Peter started flickering and he called his name right before tackling him to the ground.

Fortunately Peter flamed off before Johnny could touch him, and even if the explosion still burned a good third of Johnny's body, they were both still alive if the heavy coughing from both parts was anything to go by.

“Damn,” groaned Peter from under Johnny's body, “you're heavy and I'm pretty sure you just saved my life.”

“Yeah,” drawled Johnny, feeling like his entire throat was covered in dust, “I can't believe I actually did that.”

Peter snorted, the vibrations of it going straight to Johnny's chest – because _hey_ , he was actually laying on him and it was a lot less awkward than he had thought.

Still, awkward or not it was still Peter, who hated him more than anything, and Johnny was desperate and probably in love, but he still had some self-respect, so he quickly got up, offered Peter his hand, and umped right back into the fight once Peter was up on his feet.

The fight, after that, was long and tedious. Johnny had no idea where was the real Doom and how many superheroes had joined in the party, but it seemed like every time Johnny stopped a doombot, or one detonated, two more appeared.

Peter was never too far, and Johnny couldn't help but steal side glances every two minutes to make sure that he was still okay, unharmed, flying, fighting and away from any eye-flickering bot.

The both of them had gotten a little away from the heart of the fight and the other superheroes, and they were mostly staying on rooftops to stop the doombots before they could reach the few civilians still there evacuating, and Johnny had to admit, at least to himself and while he could blame it on the adrenaline, that fighting an entire army of robots with no one by his side but Peter was _fun_.

The most fun he had had as Spiderman in quite a while, actually.

Johnny dodged an entire wall of flame Peter threw at some bots, jumped over Peter and webbed two bots together and kicked them off the roof, letting them explode on their free fall.

“Two are getting away!” called Peter right before flying off after them, straight into the building on the other side of the street.

Johnny had a very bad feeling about that and followed him, his spider-sense telling him to grab Peter and get as far away as possible.

Just as he was entering through the same window as Peter had he heard a big detonation and the entire building fell down on Peter – and Johnny barely registered the sound of his own voice screaming Peter's name as he jumped right in the middle of the mess instead of getting out, not caring about his own safety or the fact that it was the stupidest thing he could have done in this situation, too scared for Peter to think rationally.

He took several bad hits during his long yet fast free fall, almost getting impaled by a pipe once or twice, and when he finally hit the ground, it was hard enough that he lost his breath for a minute or so, but once the dust had started to settle and he could hear faint but uncontrollable coughs, he decided that it was the right decision, and started crawling in the direction of the coughing.

It wasn't hard to find Peter – the air _literally_ grew hotter the closer Johnny got – but managing to crawl right next to him without the guy kicking him in the stomach proved to be hard.

“What the fuck!” yelled Johnny when he received a bony elbow to the ribs.

“Oh fuck,” muttered Peter before rolling over so he was on his side pressed against Johnny and going boneless against him.

“Um...” said Johnny, feeling awkward, and hot for a reason that had less to do with the _actual_ Torch pressed against his side and more with the fact that said Torch was willingly touching him, “are you okay?”

“I thought you were a stupid bot… or dead, actually.”

Johnny couldn't see his face in the pitch black darkness surrounding them, but his voice sounded weird, and his throat clicked when Johnny reached up, grabbed his upper arm and squeezed reassuringly.

“Are you okay?” the blond asked again, his voice sounding weaker than he intended.

“Yeah, I just took a bad hit in the head, I'll be fine,” replied Peter, grabbing Johnny's wrist with both his hands.

He felt hotter than usual, or at least hotter than all the times Spiderman had bumped shoulders with him, and Johnny started worrying for good when he let him reach up and probe the back of his head, searching for a bump or something.

There was some blood in his hair, but Johnny's couldn't tell if it was his or not, but Peter didn't make any alarming sound so he let go of his head and decided to concentrate on getting the two of them out of here.

“Can you give me some light?” he asked after unsuccessfully squinting up at the darkness.

“Fire in a place that doesn't have a lot of oxygen to begin with is a pretty bad idea,” mumbled Peter.

“Yeah, you're right...” sighed Johnny. “But you're really feeling okay?”

Peter nodded, his forehead bumping against Johnny's shoulder as he did so.

He was still holding onto his wrist like he was scared Johnny would leave, and any other day it would have worried him to death, but Johnny had received several bad hits to the head too, and if he was entirely honest with himself, having Peter so close and touching him felt too good to say anything, especially since he didn't know whether he'd ever get another chance at having him so close.

Still, Johnny pressed his legs up against the giant chunk of concrete above them and not crushing them to death by some miracle he wasn't going to look too closely at, and tried pushing with all of his super-strength.

It moved, but barely, and made a worrying sound that had Johnny immediately stopping what he was doing.

“Okay,” he sighed, “I think we should wait for the rescue team.”

“No one even knows that we're here,” replied Peter, his fingers tightening around Johnny's wrist.

“They're gonna realize that we're gone and they're gonna start looking. There has to be someone that will think of looking under this building.”

“I guess...”

Johnny nodded, mostly to convince himself that he wasn't going to die there, covered in dust and with a sluggish Peter plastered to his side, almost cuddling him.

That thought had Johnny's brain short-circuit for a second, because Peter _was_ cuddling him. His entire face was pressed against Johnny's shoulder, he had draped a leg over one of Johnny's at some point, and he didn't look like he was going to let go of his wrist anytime soon.

It was almost too much.

 _Almost_.

“Hey,” murmured Peter in the darkness, making Johnny jump in surprise and get out of his thoughts. “How are _you_? You were badly hurt not long ago.”

“I'm fine, my wrist isn't broken anymore and I'm pretty sure none of my ribs were touched too badly.”

Peter nodded before squirming a little, making Johnny want to squirm too because having that burning body so close was driving him crazy, until his face, instead of being against Johnny's shoulder, was actually pressed against his neck – and Johnny totally squirmed for real when Peter heaved a little sigh of contentment right against a sensitive patch of skin.

“What are you doing?” asked Johnny when Peter let go of his wrist to wrap an arm around him, “you can't be _that_ concussed.”

“I'm pretty sure we both almost died not ten minutes ago, and you were gone for so long, I had time to think about my assholeness.”

Johnny blinked up at the darkness, not believing his own ears.

“Also,” added Peter, managing to squirm even closer to Johnny's side, “Ben and I had a _long_ talk, and he kinda...”

“Kicked your ass?”

“Yeah,” huffed Peter, making Johnny chuckle.

“It's funny… because I had a small talk with my aunt too, and I think she made me realize something important but I feel like a fucking idiot for not realizing that sooner.”

Peter sighed against his neck, making him shudder.

“I think I know what you're talking about,” he said.

They stayed silent for a while after that.

Peter reached up to slowly play with the hem of Johnny's mask for a while, making him feel like his heart was in his throat and trying to beat right out of it and onto the dusty floor.

“Do you want me to take it off?” asked Johnny, voice hoarse for reasons that had nothing to do with all the dust he had breathed in.

“If you want yeah… I'd like it.”

Johnny nodded, fingers shaking as he reached up, brushed against Peter's fingers to grab the edge of his mask and push it off and let it fall to the floor next to his head.

Peter immediately reached up, dragging his fingers over Johnny's jaw in a touch so feather-light, he could barely feel it.

“I still can't believe you're Spidey...” he murmured, leaning on his elbow so he could look at Johnny's face.

Johnny didn't reply, mostly because he was overwhelmed by the fact that Peter was willingly touching him and didn't look disgusted at all. In fact, he looked like he was _loving_ it.

“It's like my craziest fantasy came to life. My teenage crush and my superhero crush being the same person...”

Johnny hoped he didn't physically react to that, but considering the way his heart had jumped and Peter was now very softly smiling down at him, the chances were small.

“I don't know if this is happening because _you_ are extremely concussed, or _I_ am and all of it is nothing but a hallucination.”

“Ben kicked my ass real hard,” grinned Peter, his fingers gliding down Johnny's jaw, over his chin and slowly went back up his cheek. “Reed, too, actually, and Aunt Marygay, of course.”

“Of course,” grinned Johnny.

He wanted to laugh a little, from the blood loss, one too many hit in the head and the warmth of Peter, making it impossible to keep his walls up. He wanted to reach up and finally run his fingers through that stupid mess of hair, to know if it was as soft as it looked. He wanted to grab him by the collar and push him even closer, to hug him tight, kiss him until neither of them had any air left in their lungs.

If someone had told him even just two hours before that he would be in this position with Peter Parker, he would have probably screamed.

Now though, with their impending death just a huge chunk of concrete away, with no way to tell anyone where they were or know if the two doombots had exploded or just one and the other one was waiting to detonate later, all the hurt and bitterness and annoyance he usually felt for Peter was gone, bringing forth all the _other_ kind of feelings he had for him and would normally repress.

“Did you mean what you said right before I asked you to take your mask off?” asked Peter, looking down at Johnny's mouth, tracing the contour of his lips with the tip of his index.

Johnny nodded, feeling like his chest was going to explode.

Peter's smile turned bigger, his fingers slid down Johnny's jaw to cup the side of his neck and slowly, like they had all the time in the world, leaned down over him, until their breath was mingling and Johnny tilted his face upward to close the last centimeters separating their mouth.

They were kissing.

 

 

***

 

 

It was hot. Literally and figuratively. And it was the only thing Johnny could think about, because he was pretty sure his brain had just rebooted.

Peter Parker was kissing him.

He was kissing Peter Parker.

They were kissing each other.

For some reason, it was hard to process, not that it prevented him to open his mouth when Peter's tongue made an appearance and Johnny even ran his fingers through his messy hair, trying to push him even closer.

God, he wondered where Peter had learned to kiss like that, because the guy was making his toes curl and his entire body feel like it was on fire – although Peter's actual body heat probably had to do with that.

The fact was that it was hot, and breaking the kiss was about the last thing Johnny wanted to do right this instant, so when Peter made to break away, he whined, tightened his grip on Peter's hair – making _him_ whine – and took control of the kiss, taking his time and using every trick he knew, until Peter was panting and squirming so hard against him, they had no other choice but to break the kiss.

“Fuck,” muttered Peter, his rapid breathing fanning over Johnny's mouth, hot and making him shudder in want. “You don't know how long I wanted to do that.”

“If I had known that being a complete asshole was your way of flirting we would have done that some time ago,” replied Johnny, taking one of his gloves off and finally touching Peter's hair for real.

It _was_ as soft as it looked.

“I was a stupid kid with absolutely no self-confidence when we met and you made me realize that I'm not as hetero as I thought I was… by the time I realized that my behavior toward you sucked, it was already too late.”

Johnny snorted, took his other glove off to cup Peter's face between his palms and kissed him on the corner of the mouth, just because he could.

“I still can't believe I actually like you, but I do, so let's forget about it for now, okay?”

“Yeah,” murmured Peter before he was kissing Johnny again, this time with more tongue and less refrain.

They stayed like that for a while, pressed as close to each other as was physically possible, kissing again and again, breaking apart just to catch their breath before they were back at it again.

At some point, Peter managed to roll completely on Johnny, straddling him and making everything ten times sexier than it already was, and the blond didn't lose time to grab his ass with one hand, making Peter chuckle into the kiss and playfully bite at his lip.

It was that moment the big chunk of concrete above them chose to disappear, and Johnny barely had time to grab his mask and put it back on while Peter was rolling away and flaming on, before the rest of the Fantastic Four and some Avengers were suddenly there, staring at them in shock – or amusement for Ben, this bastard – no one saying anything.

“Well...” said Peter after a minute, finally flaming off and stealing a quick glance at Johnny before he was turning to his team, trying for a smile, “that's awkward, but since everyone is here that means that we won, right?”

“We really need to talk,” said Sue, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms, “but let's go home first.”

Peter nodded, looking sheepish, and slowly got up and took a few steps in her direction, favoring his left leg.

Johnny thought that it was it, that the Four would go back to the Baxter Building, the Avengers to their Tower, and he'd have to find a way back to Aunt Marygay's house that didn't involve everyone seeing Spiderman so far from New York, but Peter, instead of leaving, turned to face him, a soft and shy smile on the face, and held out his hand.

“You're coming?” he asked.

Too shocked to say anything, Johnny only nodded and quickly got up, scared that his chance would disappear if he took too long. He grabbed his gloves, put them back on, and let Peter gently grab his right hand, intertwine their fingers and lead the way away from the debris, Reed, Sue and Ben following closely.

It was surreal.

 

 

***

 

 

“I'm glad you're okay,” said Sue, leaning a hip against what used to be Johnny's desk, not looking at him.

Johnny was kind of glad that she was stubbornly staring at the floor, because he wasn't sure he could totally meet her eyes either, and the fact that Aunt Marygay wasn't here to temporize this time wasn't helping his nerves.

After reaching the Baxter Building Peter had immediately been ushered away by Reed to have his leg and head looked at, and Ben had offered nothing but a tiny smile before he was gone too, leaving Johnny and Sue by themselves.

She had lead the way to his old bedroom in absolute silence, the air heavy and suffocating between them, and now that it looked like she was finally going to talk, Johnny was almost regretting that silence.

“I'm glad you're okay too,” he said despite the fact that talking was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

She looked up at him, looking surprised, and Johnny was glad for the mask hiding his face, because the fact that she was surprised by this statement _hurt_.

“Why do you look so surprised?” he asked, because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, not after a day as crazy as this one. “Do you really think that I couldn't care less about you? Or the entire team, for that matter.”

Sue didn't answer, and Johnny got up and started pacing around the room in frustration.

“Look, you guys have been assholes with me since the beginning, and I probably gave it right back at you, but that's not a reason to think that I don't care. On the contrary, _I wish_ I didn't care, it would make this entire mess a lot simpler.”

Still, his sister didn't say anything.

“Also, _I_ have more right to think that you guys couldn't care less about me than you, alright? You guys went on a fucking space mission and left me to rot here, then you became superheroes and kept on pushing me to the side. Like seriously, if Aunt Marygay hadn't been there I would have probably left a long time ago and you wouldn't even have realized. And let's not even talk about the fact that you're mad I didn't tell you about my secret identity!” he exclaimed, now on a roll, “because you fuckers didn't even tell me anything after you got back on Earth, I learned about your powers on TV!”

“Johnny,” started Sue, but he didn't let her speak.

“Also, it's you guys' fault that you didn't know about my secret! For real, it took Aunt Marygay like a week to know that something was up. Hell, even _Ben_ discovered it! You can't stay mad at me forever.”

“Johnny, I don't care about that.”

“Yeah,” he scoffed, “you weren't saying that the other day.”

“What I said the other day doesn't matter anymore,” she replied, sounding more serious than ever.

That caught Johnny's attention, and when he met his sister's eyes, he realized how tensed she was, her lips pursed and her eyebrows furrowed.

“What's going on?” he asked, suddenly nervous.

“I don't know if what I'm about to do is the best or absolute worst idea I ever had,” she said, crossing her arms and stepping closer to him, “but I've talked about it with everyone, including Aunt Marygay, and they all think that it's a good idea.”

Johnny frowned.

“What?” he asked.

“Can you take your mask off first, please?”

He hesitated, but Sue looked like she was going to faint any second, so, with his pulse quickening, he did as he was told and ended up bare faced in front of his sister, gripping his mask in a tight grip, as if it was going to save him from what was about to come.

“Johnny,” started Sue, uncrossing her arms, crossing the last steps separating them and gripping him by the upper arms, looking straight into his eyes, “I would understand if you say no, but...”

Johnny swallowed around the nervous lump lodged right behind his Adam's apple and watched as his sister looked for the right words.

“Johnny,” she finally said after wetting her lips, “we want you to join the team.”

Johnny just blinked down at her.

“Excuse me, what?”

“We want you to be in the team. The Fantastic Five.”

He blinked again, took a step back, and heavily sat back down on the bed.

 

 

***

 

 

Peter found Johnny on the Baxter Building's rooftop about two hours later. He silently sat down next to him, letting his legs dangle off the edge, just like Johnny, and lightly knocked his shoulder against his.

Johnny tried to not smile, he really did, but he couldn't help a goofy grin as he knocked his shoulder against Peter's in return.

“So...” started Peter after a while, “Sue told you, uh?”

“Yeah...”

“It just makes more sense, to have you on the team, you know?”

Johnny paused in his contemplation of New York's skyline to send a questioning look at Peter.

The brunet smiled at him, and for a second Johnny couldn't breathe through the weight on his chest. Peter was _so_ beautiful there, right next to him with the later afternoon sun casting golden streaks on his hair and making his hazel eyes stand out.

“It was always weird, to have you live with us and everything, but not come on our superheroing adventures. It felt like someone was missing, every time we did stuff without you.”

Johnny's heart squeezed uncomfortably in his chest, because this was the one thing he had dreamed of hearing ever since his family had came back from space, and here was Peter, the guy he was _stupid in love with_ , telling him just that. Johnny couldn't really help himself as he grabbed Peter's closest hand, put it on his knee, and intertwined their fingers.

“I can't believe you're telling me this,” he murmured, smiling softly at Peter, “first you make out with me like it's your job, then you actually...” he trailed off, making a vague gesture with his free hand because he couldn't really find the right words to express what he was feeling – and maybe there weren't any words for it, because suddenly it was Peter's turn to smile softly at him, and Johnny let go of his hand to cup the back of his neck, and Peter met him halfway, and they were kissing again.

And Johnny knew that he had finally found his place.

 

 

***

 

 

Here was what happened: the Fantastic Four called in a press conference to announce to the world that there was a new addition to the team. Johnny was nervous, more than he had ever been in his entire life, but Peter held his hand and smiled that sweet smile of his the whole morning before the press conference, and once there were up on a stage, facing what seemed like thousands of cameras and journalists, Johnny wearing for the very first time his brand new blue costume, all his worries disappeared.

He only sent one last look to Peter before taking his mask off because it felt right, to look at him during such an important event in his life.

The noise in the room grew deafening once his mask was off, the click of the cameras, the journalists' shouted questions, the gasps of surprise – and the whole time Johnny squinted through the blinding flashes and smiled, feeling immensely proud and happy to be standing there, with his family, for the whole world to see.

He was finally a part of something, _with them_.

The Fantastic Five were born.


End file.
